Paul Blumenthal

The Amateur Abortionists

By KATE MANNING
April 22, 2017

Imagine a stay-at-home mom who can do an abortion. Or a college student. Imagine she knows how to administer local anesthesia, has the medicines to induce miscarriage, can dilate a cervix, scrape a uterus. Imagine a group — with no medical training — performing dozens of abortions a week, in secret, at great risk to themselves, their families and the women they serve.

That is the story of Jane, an underground group in Chicago that carried out thousands of abortions between 1969 and 1973, when abortion was illegal. It’s a story of code names and safe houses, a story of women taking control of their lives and teaching other women to do the same.

Continued at source: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-amateur-abortionists.html?emc=edit_tnt_20170422&nlid=44906087&tntemail0=y&_r=0&referer

FDA urged to let abortion pill be sold at pharmacies

Posted: Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Associated Press

NEW YORK - The so-called abortion pill — now dispensed only in clinics, hospitals and doctors' offices — should be made available by prescription in pharmacies across the U.S., according to a group of doctors and public health experts urging an end to tough federal restrictions on the drug.

The appeal to the Food and Drug Administration came in a commentary published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Among the 10 co-authors were doctors and academics from Stanford, Princeton and Columbia universities, as well as leaders of major reproductive-health organizations.

Continued at source: Chronicle Journal: http://www.chroniclejournal.com/life/health/fda-urged-to-let-abortion-pill-be-sold-at-pharmacies/article_7c2f39d3-1afe-56b1-99b7-f0a61474e46b.html

U.S.: The Amateur Abortionists

U.S.: FDA urged to let abortion pill be sold at pharmacies